She Succeeded Despite Lack of Ability or Resources: Children’s Consideration of Constraint in Beliefs and Reasoning About Academic Achievement

High achievers vary in terms of the constraints and difficulties they encounter on the road to success. The present study investigates whether and how children consider the constraints one overcomes in their beliefs and reasoning about academic achievement. Four- to 9-year-olds (N = 98, 57 girls, 41 boys) and their parents (N = 92, 80 females, 12 males) of Han ethnicity in China were asked whether they believed someone could choose to overcome internal constraints (i.e., lack of ability) or external constraints (i.e., lack of educational resources) to achieve academic success. They were then presented with two story characters who both achieved high exam scores. One of the characters had to overcome internal or external constraints to achieve a high exam score, while the other did not face these constraints. Participants were asked about their inferences (i.e., the level of effort) and comparative evaluations of the two characters. Clear developmental changes were found: With age, children increasingly believed that one could choose to overcome constraints to achieve academic success, and inferred that the character who overcame these constraints worked harder than the character who did not experience such constraints. Children also increasingly evaluated the character who overcame constraints more favorably than the character who did not experience such constraints. These findings advance research in children’s cognitive understanding of achievements and abilities by revealing that, as children get older, they gradually recognize the possibility and positivity of overcoming constraints to achieve success.